HESA return

What are HESA statutory returns?

11 main data sets are collected:

• Student
• Graduate Outcomes
• GMC Assessment record
• Provider profile
• Unistats
• Staff
• Finance (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland only)
• HE-BCI
• Initial Teacher Training (England only)
• Aggregate offshore
• Estates (statutory in Wales and Scotland only, optional in England and Northern Ireland)

UCAS provides data to assist providers in their student record statutory return. This data is passed to providers through the HESA statutory return transaction.

Data supplied by providers reflects student enrolments whereas the data provided by UCAS relates to the number of students who had firmly accepted a course offer at the end of the application cycle and does not capture whether the student went on to enrol or if they changed course or provider.

What is the Student record?

• The Student record contains over 150 pieces of information for each student currently studying a course that leads to a qualification or credit at a higher education provider.
• The data contains information on the subject being studied, entry qualification and student characteristics.
• The data is collected for all students who are (or were) actively following a programme of study at some time during the reporting period (1 August – 31 July).
• The final submission is made to HESA, now part of JISC, in September every year.

Who uses the Student record data?

The HESA Student record data is used by JISC to:

• produce a range of annual publications presenting data both in detail and at a more general level
• complete statistical analysis to inform policy development in the higher education sector as well as future development of the JISC database and use of the data elsewhere

The HESA Student record data is used by the following organisations, or agents acting on their behalf, to carry out JISC’s public functions connected with education in the UK:

• Welsh Assembly Government
• Scottish Government
• Department for Economy in Northern Ireland
• Office for Students
• Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
• Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council
• UKRI
• Department for Education

The HESA Student record data is also used by other organisations in:

• newspaper and online league tables
• guides to higher education, helping prospective students choose which university to apply to

More information

All these links go to the HESA website.

• Find information on the 2023/24 Student return 
• Find information on the 2022/23 Student return 
• Find information on the 2021/22 Student return

​Read more information on the HESA website.

What is the UCAS Data for HESA statutory returns?

UCAS Data for HESA statutory returns is the transaction used by UCAS to supply data to providers, in an appropriate format, so that it can be used in their HESA student record statutory return.

There are several fields included in the transaction, and a specification is available that describes the fields, as well as any mapping from UCAS to HESA coding.

The HESA data requirement is published annually as part of the coding manual and will be made available on the HESA website – see Assistance with UCAS Data for HESA below.

Access to UCAS Data for the HESA statutory return transaction

Providers obtain this transaction from UCAS through the following routes:

(a)    A flat-file type structure. This is available to download via the provider's MOVEIt account for those that have requested the file.

(b)    odbc-link directly into tables (odbc-link won’t be in use from 2024 cycle onwards)

(c)    xml-link directly into tables

(d)    for web-link users, as export file Applicant Data 3 (HESA Student Return details) available via the Management Information menu and then the Export Data menu option

The following document gives details of the format for the 'FLAT' file for *J data from JISC:

• UCAS Undergraduate data for HESA 2023 (400.56 KB)

Converting the UCAS Undergraduate flat-file data

In support of the UCAS Data for JISC transaction 2023, we have made available a Microsoft Excel tool to convert the flat-file into Excel format. Using this Excel tool, you can convert the flat-file into a CSV or Excel file with headings to aid analysis of the data. This is not intended to replace the flat-file or any direct import via odbc-link or xml-link into your management information systems.

Download the

For instructions on how to download, decompress, and use the Excel tool, please refer to the

Timing

The UCAS Data for the HESA transaction is available at the end of an application cycle, once exam results have been confirmed and the final updates to applications have been made; this is usually mid to late November.

Structure

• There is one record per accepted student.
• The transaction cannot be split into an entity structure. For example, course-related information is provided assigned to each student according to course applied for, and qualifications are provided as a repeating group of fields.

Students

• Students included in the transaction are those placed in an application cycle for a given year.
• Deferred students will be included in the transaction of their year of application, and will continue for every year that they are a live applicant.

Changes to the UCAS Data for HESA transaction 2022/23

Please note the addition of two new fields

Carer responsibilities – this new field will be added to *J files complete with appropriate JISC code mapping for Scottish and Welsh providers only.

Caring responsibilities
01 – Not a carer
02 – Carer
99 – Not available

Estranged from parents – this new field will be added to *J files complete with appropriate JISC code mapping for Scottish and Welsh providers only.

Estranged from parents
01 – Yes
02 – No
99 – Not available

The ethnic origin column has changed field length from 2 to 3.

Ethnic origin – new mapping will be updated to JISC data futures codes (excluding ‘White’ categories due to no appropriate mapping).

The following fields, national identity, SOC & SEC– from 2000 will display null values for the *J outputs.

Previous institution – new mapping will be updated to JISC data futures codes.

Religious belief – new mapping will be updated to JISC data futures codes.

Changes are applicable for both UCAS Undergraduate (UCAS/UG) and UCAS Conservatoires (CUKAS/UC) data.

Assistance with UCAS Data for HESA

If you need assistance or information for the 2023 entry return, please refer to the HESA website information on the 2023/24 Student return.

Reference material for 2023 entry can be found in the 

To complement the StarJ specification, you can